My ipad keeps saying activation required

I solved it on my iPad 2!

The issue was a had a old SIM card inserted from years ago. I took that out and the activation proceeded perfectly.

Big thanks to the people who suggested connecting it to iTunes because when it was plugged in to my laptop and it failed to activate, there was a pop up that suggested checking the sim was inserted correctly. No conspiracy this time! Hopefully this helps everyone else

Reply to Michel. That's the first thing I checked.

Anyway, the posters below seem to have cracked it. I too had an old SIM card in, which I removed and a couple of hours later I managed to get the device back up (albeit minus some recent data updates I had been working on.

Why on Earth an old SIM should cause an error like this I have no idea, but I'm grateful to the other people on here who spotted it.

There are plenty of possible solutions here in this posting.

Did you read the entire post and try all of the various advice and solutions?

If you have a cellular data iPad, have you tried opening the SIM card tray on the long side of your iPad and removing the SIM card, then try a hard reset of your iPad by holding down both the Home and sleep/wake buttons simultaneously until your iPad goes to black and restarts with Apple logo, then release the buttons to see if the Activation Required goes away.

Older iPad models have very old SIM cards in them and IF the cellulsr data service has been changed, discontinued or hasn’t been used much over the lifespan of the device, this Activation Required message may happen.

Whether or not you have a Wifi ONLY iPad or cellular data iPad, another solution posted is have you tried connecting your iPad to iTunes on a computer (connected to the Internet, as well) per advice on the previous page of this post.

Some users reported success using this method to reach Apple's activation servers and cleared up the Activation Required issue.

Possible solutions to clear up your issue are right in this posting.

All you have to do is read.

Good Luck to You!

This issue has mostly affected iPad 2 models with SIM cards for Cellular data service.

If you have a cellular iPad 2 model, try removing the SIM card from the SIM card tray, located on one of the long sides of the iPad ( you may need something small or pointy or the original SIM card tray tool that came with your Cellular service iPad 2 to open the tray ), remove the SIM card, try either a simple restart of your iPad 2 AND/OR try a hard reset of your iPad by holding down both the Home and sleep/wake buttons simultaneously until your iPad goes to black and restarts with Apple logo, then release the buttons.

Then, try re-activating your iPad 2 without the SIM card in the tray.

If successful, return the SIM card back into the tray.

If no joy,

Leave the SIM card installed, first, and try to re-activate your iPad 2 with it connected to a computer running iTunes.

If STILL no joy,

Try taking out the SIM card and try the re-activation with your iPad 2 connected to the computer and iTunes, once again.

Possible solution WITHOUT a SIM card (WiFi ONLY iPad ).

Connect your iPad to a computer running the latest iTunes.

Force your (still plugged-in) iPad to restart by pressing and holding the power (Sleep/Wake) and Home buttons at the same time. Keep holding them down until you see the Recovery mode screen. You probably need to keep holding these down for longer than you think: the screen will go black then after a few seconds, and the Apple logo will appear, but you need to keep holding the buttons for another 10 seconds or so before the iPad goes into Recovery mode.

You'll be given the option to restore or update in iTunes. Select Update.

iTunes will now try and attempt to reinstall iOS 9.3.5.

If the update process takes more than 15 minutes, your iPad will exit recovery mode, and you'll need to repeat the above step.

Some other users here reported seeing the error message again during this process, but says you should ignore it and wait.

After the update is finished, leave your iPad connected to the computer. You'll now need to complete the activation setup process for your iPad using iTunes.

IF still no joy at this point, leave your iPad connected and force another restart of your iPad as I described earlier in this reply post.

This time your iPad should ask if you want to restore it.

Once the restore is finished, you will be asked to select whether you want to activate the iPad as a "new" device or if you want to restore it from your last backup. Selecting the new iPad option will format your iPad so it is like new and restoring it will retrieve your data again.

Good Luck to You!

I just got hit with this bug tonight. 7yo iPad2, iOS 9.3.5, non-cellular, 3.1GB free. Sat it down for 3 mins for a quick break, came back to find the activation screen.

Read this post, connected to my computer & iTunes via USB. Was able to activate. Was warned about not using iCloud updates. (I don't use )

Went thru a couple logins, password, trust the computer, dialogs and all is well. Good Luck! My iPad looks fine so far. Whew!!!

Odds are the SIM card has gone bad. I was able to get past the “Activation required” by removing the SIM card and restarting.

So this gets you into the iPad or iPhone with everything that’s not in the SIM card intact.

It would still be worth checking if it’s a loose SIM card.

Don’t know why you replied to the Original Poster, Akisa.

The Original Poster never returned here to confirm whether any of the posted solutions worked for them.

Do you have a cellular iPad that you can simply take out the SIM card out of the SIM card tray to test to see if this issue goes away?

Many iPad 2 and 3 cellular model users, reported that removing the SIM card, temporarily, fixed this issue.

How much free data storage space is left on your iPhone?

iDevices need to maintain, at least, 3 GBs, OR GREATER, free data storage space.

Operational issues arise when free data storage space dips below the 2 GBs threshold.

Also, depending on the age and model of your iPad, I am wondering if Activation required issue is a sign of a weakening or failing battery, at this late stage.

Hi OldBokky I went into my local Apple store had to wait and they rebooted my iPad even though it was several years old and second hand. They fixed it even though there was no sim. And the staff member said unofficially it’s very common

My iPad 2 started with this issue yesterday. I was on Hulu when all of a sudden the iPad completely shut down and when I restarted it it gave me the activation message. After multiple attempts to activate it like instructed, I took out the old SIM card and connected to my iTunes, within minutes I was able to reactivate, sync and restore my settings.

Thanks for the suggestion.

The SIM card removal is the key for the Activation Server error on iPad 2 models with cellular data service.

You need to take out/remove tge SIM Card out of the SIM card tray of the iPad 2 to either re-activate it from the device or re-activate it using iTunes on a computer.

Removing the SIM card in a cellular data model iPad 2 will, in most cases, fix the activation server error.

Connect to iTunes to fix it!

Situation:

My dad had this issue with his iPad 2 with AT&T 3G. It has never been activated to work on the AT&T network. When he picked up his iPad yesterday, it prompted him with the same "Activation Required" message that prohibited him from using his iPad until it was satisfied. It would error out stating that the activation server was temporarily unavailable.

Steps taken to fix it:

I removed the SIM card. That didn't fix it. I reinserted the SIM card. That didn't fix it either. I connected the iPad to my computer and opened iTunes. (The iPad may ask if you trust the computer.) The activation went through immediately, and everything was back to normal on my dad's iPad.

I had this problem. Which was solved in store free of charge at an Apple store in here the UK.. I had no receipt or proof of purchase. They did a master reset.

I Hope this helps kindest regards Marc

This just happened to me on my very old iPad 2 which I have owned since it was new. It has been somewhat flaky recently, changing to the Apple logo randomly, but this time it came back saying activation required. It first asked to join a wifi network and seemed to remember the one I had been using, but did not continue. After trying that network several times, it finally asked for my Apple ID and password, with a hint about my email address. Once I got the message that the authentication server was not reachable, but the next time it went on to say I needed a two step verification, please enter a phone number for a text or call with a code. This could have been before or after it asked for iCloud setup - I would skip the iCloud stuff if it happened again, and, yes, that is an option. It also wanted a 4 digit number associated with iCloud, but one option was just to reset all iCloud (something) which I did. I half expected it to come up with a blank home screen, but happily, it looked just the same as it did an hour or two ago. I hope this helps someone, including Apple who should have fixed this by now.

Instead of just trying solutions on your iPad only, have you checked/troubleshooted your MODEM/WiFi router for problems/issues as I previously suggested to a previous user?

There seems to be ONLY a very small minority of iPad 2 users experiencing this issue.